What is Design Sprint?

Design Sprint is a time-limited, five-step process employing design-based thinking to reduce potential risks when introducing a new product, service or feature to the market.
The name stems from the fact that its design process is quite similar to Sprint used in so-called agile development. Design Sprint provides a brand-new approach to tasks. It was developed in 2010 by a Google employee, Jake Knapp, with the primary goal on mind of minimizing the design phase.

The essence of Design Sprint

Based on Ergomania’s experience, the key to radically shorten the design phase is to help teams clearly define goals, validate assumptions, and decide on product schedules before actual development begins.
We get to the solution for strategic issues through interdisciplinary, rapid prototyping and usability testing, so building and testing a prototype takes just five days using Design Sprint.
It is important to distinguish between Design Thinking and Design Sprint because the former is a mindset while the latter is the name of a process. The essence of design-based thinking is that even in the earliest phase of design, the focus is on appearance and usability, ie design. The realization of this mindset is Design Sprint.

Design Sprint at Ergomania

To achieve this goal, we will implement the Design Sprint in an extremely intensive, 5-day workshop series with the involvement of all interested parties. The validation of the idea is followed by UX, project scoping, then the preparation and testing of the MVP.
The five days are structured following the Design Sprint map:

1. Mapping the problem
2. Creating various solutions
3. Assessment of the solutions
4. Modeling the best variant with a prototype
5. Testing the prototype and thus validating the business idea

For projects where five days would be too much, we also created a 3-day, shortened workshop.

The main tools of Design Sprint

The main tool of Design Sprint is Design Thinking. We follow its predetermined steps every day. However, the key to success is the diversity of the development team. Ergomania can also lend a hand putting together the best possible team.
During the workshop, one of the tools for risk reduction is a prove method of detection and remedy of any blind spots on the team. The Design Sprint kit also includes all methodologies and technical tools that have already proven their worth during the validation and development processes.

What do our customers gain from Design Sprint?

We always build the workshop according to the challenges of the given project, using proven methodologies but completely tailored to the needs of our customers. Our clients gain time primarily through rapid prototyping and idea validation, and time is something that no one can replace. If a project can be validated in just five days, the gain for the business can be measured in weeks or months. With Design Sprint, it only takes one workweek for our customers to decide if it’s worth dealing with that particular development idea. In addition, one of the beneficial and useful byproducts of Design Sprint is the development of the team’s skillset.

What is the role of our customers during Design Sprint?

Design Sprint is about teamwork what we take very seriously at Ergomania. A workshop only makes sense if the team involved is well-prepared for the task. To this end, there are three things we expect from our customers:

1. have someone present from all the departments involved for at least 3 days
2. provide an expert for the very first day
3. provide testers and reward them for their efforts

The result of a successful Design Sprint

The result of the successfully completed workshop is a validated concept prototype, that is already more beautiful, lovable and user-friendly in its development phase than many products already available on the market. It is hardly a coincidence that the leading global companies have all cornered the market and became leaders on their respective fields due to their design centric approach.
Just think of Apple, a company that rose from the brink of bankruptcy with products comparable to those their competitors were making – except for the fact that their competitor’s product lines of music players, smartphones and tablets weren’t nice nor user-friendly.

1. A validated, design-oriented prototype
2. Finalized business concept